Roadside bottles: a death trap for shrews

Learn how bottles tossed out along the roadside are killing small mammals in the mountains during a talk held on Earth Day at 7 p.m. April 22 at the Highlands Nature Center.

Small mammals like shrews and other rodents enter bottles in search of food or water and become trapped, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of animals over time, particularly shrews.

Highlands Nature Center Director Patrick Brannon along with students from the UNC Institute for the Environment at the Biological Station have searched roadways for bottles containing the skeletal remains of shrews and rodents. Brannon will discuss the research and implications of this phenomenon in the region and how you can help alleviate the problem.